You’re my Mobilentine

Abinaya panicked as her expensive Samsung Galaxy Core Prime shattered to pieces. The mobile phone met its death with the seventh fall. She was speaking with her lover Gautham. Or rather fighting with him. Their relationship was on the verge of breaking up.

“Abi, how many times I have told you not to speak with Sriram?” roared Gautham over the phone.

“What’s wrong in speaking with him? He is just a friend of mine. Nothing else.”

“I burn with jealousy each time I see you speaking with him.”

“Look! He is my friend and I will surely speak with him.”

“This is it Abi! Let’s break up. I cannot give in to your tantrums. Nothing is working out between us. Get lost!”

“Hey Gautham…” But Abinaya heard the phone click.

Immediately she opened Go SMS Pro and started typing a message furiously, “U wil regret fr tis gautham.U just cant break up wid me fr tis silly reason…” As she was typing the message, the mobile phone slipped out from its protective case and fell down with a splattering noise. Abinaya watched in horror as the parts of her mobile phone flew hither and thither.

She picked the parts and assembled them. But it had become far from recognizable.

Oh my god! My mobile phone has committed suicide! A single drop of tear escaped from her eye.

*****

A week ago…

“Hey, there will be a mobile phone raid today!!” screamed Preethi as soon as she entered the final year B.E Electronics Communication classroom.

“What???” Abinaya was horrified. She was the one who seldom brought her mobile phone to college. But that day was an exception.

“Where will I hide it now?” she asked Preethi in a frightened tone.

“Ummm..shall we handover our mobile phones in the xerox shop?” asked Preethi.

“But we don’t have time to go there. And also they won’t allow us to visit the xerox shop now.” Shruthi put forward her views.

Abinaya began fidgeting with her fingers. Her mobile phone was precious to her. She cast a sad look to her lover Gautham who was seated in the boys row. He too had brought his mobile phone.

Just then, the Medical Electronics lecturer Sheela entered their classroom.

“Students! We have an inspection today. Our college authorities are conducting it. So I think there will be a mobile phone raid too. As final year students, you will be bringing your phones. So we have decided to collect your phones and keep it safely in our department locker for today. You can collect them in the evening.”

Though the students were reluctant to handover their mobile phones, the caring tone of Sheela ma’am softened their hearts. One by one, the mobile phones were collected in separate polythene bags. Sheela ma’am collected them and placed them in the department locker.

But as fate could have it, there was no inspection on that day. The bell rung at 4 PM and the students gathered in front of the department staff room to collect their mobile phones.

The HOD of ECE department flashed a harsh look at all the students from her cabin. Then she casually went back to her work instead of handing over the mobile phones. Stunned, the students began whispering among themselves.

“What the hell! I think the fate of our mobile phones is sealed today,” whispered Abinaya to Preethi.

“Yeah! HOD is burning with rage. I can say from the look of her killer eyes.”

“Ma’am, we need our mobile phones.” Shruthi being the brave one, raised her voice above the whispers.

The HOD once again bolted her eyes up from the papers that she was correcting.

“How so cooly you are asking! In spite of telling not to bring your mobile phones, you have brought them. Now how dare you are asking me to return back? I will not return it today….”

“Ma’am!!!” The gathering chorused together.

“What ma’am? I won’t return them. You have exams tomorrow right? Go and study for it. I will give after that.”

“Ma’am!!” They yelled once again.

“Keep shouting! I won’t return them back.” Saying so, she zipped up her hand bag and came out of her cabin. Shruthi blocked her way.

“Ma’am, we won’t bring our phones hereafter. Please return them. We would get sound scoldings from our parents if we don’t have our mobile phones with us.”

“You should have thought about all these before bringing your phone to college. Understand? All of you go! Study well for the exam.” The HOD shooed them away.

The look on the students’ faces was one such that could never be forgotten. They returned back to their homes, sadly.

*****

At 7 PM…

At a corner of the drawer in the HOD’s cabin, there lay a polythene bag which held the mobile phones of Abinaya and Gautham. Hers being Samsung Galaxy Core Prime (SGCP) and his’ being Iphone 4S (I4s). The polythene bag was suffocating and the mobile phones were having hard time breathing. SGCP turned to its right  and found I4S struggling to squeeze between the other phones.

“Hey you! There is some space beside me. Come over here!” SGCP shouted to I4S.

I4S went past the other phones and settled beside SGCP. He casted a warm smile at her.

“Hi, I am I4S. And you?”

“I am SGCP. Who is your owner?”

“Some geek called Gautham. He always uses me only to make calls to a mad girl named Abinaya.”

“Mad girl? Don’t call her like that! She is my owner.”

“Is it? So our owners are lovers.”

“But they are bad. They keep on fighting for silly reasons. I have an app inside me which has recorded their sweet talks as well as their arguments.” SGCP made a proud statement as she spoke about the applications installed inside her.

“Awwww! That’s damn awesome! Though my App Store has apps for recording such calls, Gautham has never installed any of them.”

“Maybe Abinaya is hopelessly romantic. That’s why she records all the calls.”

I4S smiled to himself. Then he turned and looked at SGCP. She was peacefully breathing after an hour of suffocation.

“Why did the HOD do this to the students? And now she has trapped us too!”

“Yup! She won’t return us back to them until tomorrow.” SGCP let out a long sigh.

Once again, I4S turned and looked at her. Something within him was changing. He could feel his energy intact. At other times, his energy would be draining at a rate faster than any other mobile phones.

“You look beautiful SGCP! You are wheatish white in color and that suits you well.”

“Oh my! Don’t try to flatter me. You know, I always stay inside a protective case. But I don’t know what happened to Abinaya today. She let me out from my cage. Maybe if I had been inside, I wouldn’t have been attractive to you.”

“But I am not only attracted to your outer beauty. Your inner beauty speaks a lot. Your heart is a Quad Core processor that is pure and kind. You support all your functioning wonderfully. Your resolution and your other aesthetic features are also perfect.”

“Being one of the best phones in the world, you are appreciating about my features. That’s so sweet of you.” SGCP’s heart filled with warmness. For the first time she felt liberated. She enjoyed being with I4S who is touted to be one of the expensive phones in the world.

“I am not as lucky as you. I don’t have a back button. And each time Gautham has to press my home button in a forceful manner. I cannot share my feelings with other phones like you as I don’t have an option to connect with you all via Bluetooth. Whenever my owner wants to download songs, he curses me. I don’t have any such direct options. He has to connect me through Itunes in his PC or pay for his favorite song. I am so bad! Why didn’t my parents add such features when manufacturing me?”

“Hey, you don’t have to feel about all such things. You know, you have one of the best operating systems in the world. Very secure and protected. Not an open one like me. You should learn to love yourself I4S. Then only you can perform better at the hands of your owner. Trust me. Soon you will be completely liked by him.”

SGCP’s soothing words melted I4S’ heart. The polythene bag was not suffocating anymore and he felt happy to be praised by his arch nemesis in the mobile phone world.

“Unlike humans, we don’t have hands. Otherwise I would have hugged you by now as a form of saying thanks,” said I4S.

“You don’t need to thank me. I have always admired you. But other SGCPs have always envied you. Compared to them, I can be a better companion to you.”

I4S’ heart skipped a beat. He felt a powerful magnetic attraction to SGCP. Till then, he was jealous of Android phones. But SGCP changed his notion about them. They were kind mobile phones and they could be best friends to all iOS devices.

Hours flew away as both of them shared about their experiences from their birth till the present. They spoke about everything under the sun. They even found a few similarities regarding their sensor properties. Within the next one hour, they became close friends. They were startled by the situation in which they were brought together. Unknown to them, something was brewing inside their hearts.

“SGCP, do you believe in love?” asked I4S, sensing the change that was happening to him.

“What is love? What do we machines know about love?”

“Love is something which we can feel from our owners when they first buy us. But it is short termed. They gradually start to hate us after a point of time and look for new gadgets.”

“That’s true! I have never experienced love. Abinaya didn’t want me. She just purchased me for the sake of having a smartphone. I don’t feel loved. Neither I have fallen in love with my owner.”

“Then, together shall we learn what is love?”

“What do you mean I4S?”

“Don’t tell me that you don’t understand. Haven’t you felt the butterflies in your stomach after these four hours?”

“I do have. But I don’t know whether it is acceptable.”

“Why not?”

“Because we are different. We cannot fall in love with each other. Even if we get into a relationship, it would last only for another fourteen hours. We will be separated by our owners.”

“But our owners are lovers. They will surely spend time with each other. At that time, we will continue our love story.”

“Even then we are different. You run on iOS and I on Android. It’s a complete mismatch.”

“What is this SGCP? Only an hour before you appreciated me and even found similarities with me. What if we are different? Don’t human beings fall in love despite religious differences? Why can’t we machines have the same privileges?”

SGCP was dumbstruck by his words. She decided to speak her heart out. Even though they had limited time, she wanted to make the best use of it.

“Why don’t you tell those three magical words then?” SGCP’s voice had turned passionate by then.

“Yeah okay, I will tell….” I4S trailed off.

“Come on!” She was impatient to hear those words. That was her first love. She wanted it to be special.

“I will propose in a different way. YOU ARE MY MOBILENTINE.” Saying so, I4S giggled to himself.

“What’s that?”

“It’s something I researched from one of Gautham’s messages to Abinaya. He had said that she was his Valentine. So I modified it a little.”

“Ha ha! That’s awesome I4S. I love you too.”

I4S’ heart resonated with SGCP’s confession. They looked at each other and saw a different kind of happiness in their eyes. Something that told them that they had bridged the gap between iOS and Android.

“The only problem for us is that we cannot touch each other and feel our love. But yet our love is divine. I hope so. Do you?” asked I4S.

“I do too. We have did something that nobody could have ever imagined. Now they would stop fighting over iOS and Android.”

“No you’re wrong. We cannot make our love story public. We are non living things in the eyes of our owners. They will never know the beautiful love story of us. This is the fate of us and we have to accept it. We are machines.”

SGCP was getting even more attracted to I4S with his practical speech. She decided that she can never live without him. But the harsh reality was only thirteen hours away.

After a few mushy talks and exchange of sweet-nothings, they realized that their energies had started discharging. They planned to lull themselves to sleep. They had the best rest that night. Serenity filled their minds which they had never experienced while resting in their owners’ homes.

*****

After eight hours, SGCP and I4S woke up to strange sounds. The polythene bag in which they were placed was pushed a little. The HOD had entered her cabin and was searching for a book in the drawer.

“Where is my book?” She spoke to herself. SGCP and I4S were relieved as they heard the drawer door shut.

“Good morning sweetheart!” wished I4S.

“Good morning darling!” SGCP wished back.

“Only five more hours for our love story to end.”

“Don’t remind me about that. If I had tear glands, I would have cried the entire night.”

“What do we do? I don’t want our love story to end like this.”

“Hey, I have an idea. Can we commit suicide?”

“What are you telling???”

“At least we can be happy that we loved each other till our death. Being separated by death is far better than being separated by our owners.”

I4S smiled and winked at her in response to her idea.

*****

A week later…

Gautham updated his Facebook status, “My Iphone 4s fell to its death from the corner of my bed (sic). So did my girlfriend’s mobile. And now we have swore never to fight with each other. Maybe the death of our mobile phones made us realize our love for each other. :-)”

__END__